July Summary and Analysis

Provence is actually an area that stretches all the way south to the Cftes d'Azur, along the Mediterranean Sea. One day Peter drives the two-hour distance, which takes him four hours due to all the traffic, to visit his friend in Ramatuelle, close to Saint-Tropez. This part of Provence is so different - with its crowded streets and touristy haunts - from the one he and his wife love, that it hardly seems right to call it by the same name.

Back at home, Peter meets Massot again during one of his early morning dog walks, and the man is angry because his signposts labeling the parkland private property have been ignored by what he assumes to be German tourists. Massot decides his signs will have to be even more threatening, and warn against miniature mines called piiges a feu. During...